Deca-like coffee has caffeinated effects. The placebo effect is also strong. And in the case of decaffeinated coffee, researchers have shown it’s particularly effective at relieving withdrawal symptoms in heavy drinkers.
We swap the coffee for a decaffeinated coffee: and see the effect… This is our experience of the day with Mathilde Fontez, editor-in-chief of the science magazine Epsilon. Many of us are addicted to our morning coffee… But we could also go for decaffeinated.
franceinfo: Researchers just showed that Deca works like coffee?
Mathilde Fontez: Yes, and yet the researchers, a team from the University of Sydney, chose heavy coffee drinkers for their experiment. They forced her to abstain for 24 hours. Then they served them coffee or decaffeinated coffee. And yes, what they saw was that even Deca had effects – participants reported that cravings were reduced, that they felt that arousing effect that caffeine normally causes.
It’s the placebo effect…
Yes, it is indeed the placebo effect that is once again being expressed here. This effect is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy: when we have expectations, our brain works to make them come true. For example, taking a pill, even if it doesn’t contain any medicine, can relieve the pain. Decaf is the same.
But what the researchers particularly noticed is that this placebo effect of deca works, even if you know that you are taking deca. Some of the participants in the experiment knew there was no caffeine in their cup, and they still felt their cravings diminish. One possible explanation: we would be conditioned.
Coffee isn’t just caffeine, it’s a whole ritual: a whole series of stimuli that are always the same, the taste, the smell, the warmth of the cup. Even the sound of the coffee maker. We would have integrated these stimulations so strongly that they alone would be sufficient to trigger the neural effects of caffeine.
No more coffee?
Of course, the effect remains less strong than with real coffee. But yes, you can try to wean yourself off caffeine using this method without experiencing withdrawal. This is also the conclusion of the researchers: Use this effect, beyond the example of coffee.
One could imagine withdrawal protocols for other drugs where patients know they are taking a placebo. It would solve one of the methodological problems of these treatments: because it is unethical to deceive the patient. We usually have to tell him when we give him a placebo. It remains to be seen whether this Deca effect also works with psychotropic drugs other than caffeine…